


Younger Every Day

by CoramDeo



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Undertale, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-23 14:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23713111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoramDeo/pseuds/CoramDeo
Summary: The preparations are complete.  It's time for the monsters to go free.  And if that requires a child doing what the adults are unwilling to do, so be it.
Relationships: Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel
Comments: 9
Kudos: 26
Collections: Fanfiction From The Chara Defense Squad





	1. The Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> This story is not canonical with my [Best Friends Forever](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591552) series, though it features characters who are similar. I wanted to take one of the main incidents from the first story ([Worth a Thousand Words](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22110778/chapters/52772428)) and see if there was another story that could be told.
> 
> Thanks once again to [TakaiWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakaiWolf/) for proofreading and editing assistance.
> 
> More details about the inspiration for this story can be found in the notes at the end of the story.

Chara's eyelids fluttered open. As she inhaled deeply and stretched herself out on the bed, all the feelings that had been with her the previous night as she had drifted off to sleep suddenly roared back - anticipation, happiness, worry, resolve… dread. For a split second she couldn't understand what had triggered the cloud to descend on her. Then she remembered _._

_This is the day I'm going to die._

For several moments she did nothing, remaining in bed with the covers pulled up to her neck to ward off the cool morning air. She glanced over to her left at an identical bed, empty except for the rumpled sheets and blankets. Asriel must already be up. He often got up first, but usually waited for Chara, doing something at the desk or playing quietly with his toys until she woke up. Then they would go to breakfast together. But maybe he had just been really hungry? 

Or maybe he was making his own preparations for what would take place that evening. 

_Or maybe he's avoiding me because he's still scared._

Whatever the reason, Chara was glad to have the room to herself and lie in bed just a little longer. The knowledge of what she had to do was clear, and the determination to do it, fought for over the course of months, had been strong last night. Now that the day had finally come, though, it was a little harder to shoulder the burden again. But after another couple of minutes, she took another deep breath, and threw back the covers. It was her last day on earth, and she intended to make the most of it. 

Putting on her slippers, she padded over to the wardrobe, opened it, and looked at her outfits thoughtfully. Normally she would have thrown on a shirt, sweater, and the insulated overalls the king had brought home one day, custom made for her by a tailor who was proud to be helping the royal family's human child. Chara enjoyed being outdoors, and most days after her schoolwork was done, she would head out to the snowy forest that bordered the family home, usually accompanied by Asriel, usually followed by running around and playing in the snow, usually involving a snowball fight, usually ending when someone got hit in the face, usually producing snarling or whimpering (depending on who got hit), usually resulting in the two of them shivering their way back home to sit in front of the fireplace and get cups of tea or (if they were lucky) hot chocolate. 

Today wasn't going to be like that. Chara wanted to look nice for what was about to happen. She knew enough about funerals to know that formality was called for. She fingered the deep purple robe that Toriel had made for her, but decided against it. Coming out in her finest clothes on what everyone assumed was just a normal day would get her some odd looks. The last thing she needed today was for Toriel and Asgore to become suspicious that something strange was going on. She reached for a pair of dress pants and her favorite shirt and sweater. Not too fancy, but something nice to be remembered in. A bitter smile briefly twisted her face at the grotesque idea - a child picking out their own burial clothes. 

Then again, Chara thought, she hadn't been a child for a very long time. 


	2. Breakfast

As Chara came down the hallway, she could see Asriel at the dining table, eating his breakfast. Clattering sounds drifted out of the kitchen beyond. Despite the moments of solitude she had enjoyed just a few minutes earlier, she felt a twinge of regret that he hadn't waited for her. But she pushed the thought away. He could do what he wanted; she didn't care. Besides, they would have plenty of time together after today. Still… she needed to make sure everything was still on track for that evening. 

"Good morning, Asriel!" Chara said as brightly as she could muster as she stepped into the room. 

The boy jerked slightly and stared at her. "Oh, h-howdy Chara. Um… I hope you don't mind, I went ahead and got breakfast, since I was going to be heading out soon and… um, I hope that was OK." His anxious eyes stayed glued on the girl. 

_He looks like a deer caught in the headlights_ , Chara thought. "Oh, that's fine," she said in a breezy tone. "What are you going to be doing today?" 

"Well, I'm gonna go play at Blinky's for a while, and then after lunch we're going to go pick up Skitter on our way to Snowdin and hang out at MK's house for the afternoon." 

"That sounds fun. I'll be going to Snowdin later as well with your dad, but after I finish breakfast, your mom and I are going to cook something for dessert tonight." 

"Oh!" Asriel's face brightened. "If you're going to be in town, do you want to come over to MK's later? Skitter told me that he and his sister got a new toy that's supposed to be super cool, but he's keeping it a secret until we come! I'm sure they'd both be glad if you stopped by, and we could walk back home together!" 

Chara thought for a moment. It _would_ be nice to see Missy… and she and MK _did_ have some really cool toys. And maybe she and Missy could play a board game if the boys were doing something else. But with a sigh, Chara rejected the idea. Her day was already going to be full without an extra stop. She wasn't in a particularly playful mood anyway. 

More significantly, however, the idea of a long walk back home with Asriel worried her. Normally she enjoyed spending time talking with him when they walked through the underground or sat out by the bluff near their home that overlooked the forest. Today was different. She did not want to engage Asriel in a long discussion. She could guess what kind of unsettled thoughts were going through his head. Her resolve would not be helped by hearing them. 

"Sorry, Asriel, I won't have time today. Say 'hi' to Missy for me, though." 

The light in the boy's eyes dimmed a bit. "Oh. Ok, that's fine. Maybe you can come nex-" He stopped with a small gasp, and immediately flushed. "I mean… um… I hope you have a good day, Chara. I-I guess I'll see you sometime around dinner?" 

"Right. I'll see you then, Asriel. Have a fun day!" Her chipper tone didn't match the sharp gaze she aimed at him. The boy nodded and quickly pushed away from the table, carrying his bowl into the kitchen. 

Chara watched him go. Convincing Asriel had been the hardest part of the plan, of course - she had anticipated that. It had taken months of careful, gentle suggestions - appeals to his sense of heroism, reminders that the Underground is a prison and not a home, encouragement to think how excited everyone will be when he frees them all - along with coaxing, flattery, and sometimes (she winced) mockery and verbal abuse. 

But in the end, she had convinced him that she was right. Or at least convinced him enough to make him willing to go through with the plan. And now, a day of mindless play with his Loox, Migosp and lizard friend would be just the thing for Asriel. It would keep him occupied and prevent him from thinking too much about what was going to follow dinner. And none of his three friends would be likely to notice if he wasn't quite himself today. 

Her thoughts drifted to her own friends. Would there be time to go visit Iris before she and Asgore went to Snowdin? She didn't live far away, and it might be nice to play together one last… 

_No,_ Chara decided. The day was already full enough, and anyway she had been over to Iris' house last week. Besides, her friend was unusually perceptive, and not just in the normal way that Looxes were. Chara knew how to wear a mask well, but if anyone was likely to guess that something unusual was going on, it would be Iris. She couldn't risk it. 

A bit of sadness washed over Chara, but she fought it back. She had to keep focused on what was important. 

"Bye mom - I'll be back before supper!" Asriel called as he trotted out of the kitchen. He was almost to the front door before he stopped and turned around. "Bye Chara - I'll see you later!" 

"Goodbye." 

As the front door slammed shut, a frown settled onto Chara's face. Asriel hadn't bothered hugging her on the way out. That was also fairly unusual. Another twinge bubbled up in her, but she quickly pushed it down. Really, she told herself, her concern wasn't with the lack of a hug, but what that said about Asriel's state of mind. He was certainly preoccupied. Probably worried, too. Chara just hoped that he could hold it together for a little while longer. After all, _he_ didn't have anything to worry about. Chara was the one doing the hard part. She had made the plans, she had told him exactly what kind of flowers to bring and how many, and she was going to be the one doing everything that was needed tonight. She was handing Asriel everything on a silver platter. All he needed to do was take it. 


	3. Inevitability

"Now stir the mixture for a few moments, dear, but not for long, or else too much air will get into the batter and form bubbles which we do not want." 

"Ok, Mrs. Dreemurr." 

Chara gave Toriel a furtive glance as she began to stir the batter. The motherly creature next to her continued to radiate a smile as Chara worked, and only a few quick blinks and a slight dip of her head gave any sign that Chara's words had stung a bit. Early on during her time with the Dreemurrs, Toriel had suggested (ever so gently) that it would be fine if Chara called her "mom". Asgore had sometimes referred to himself as her father when talking to other monsters, before checking himself in embarrassment. Chara hadn't been offended, but she had politely ignored every hint or timid suggestion. There had been a succession of people in Chara's life early on whom she had called "mom" or "dad". But it hadn't taken her too long to realize it was easier for everyone if nobody tried to act out that cozy bit of fiction. It hurt a lot less that way. 

True, she had almost slipped up once or twice. Cooking in the kitchen with Toriel was a place where it was easy to make that mistake. Laughing while being tossed into the air and caught by Asgore was also dangerous. The Dreemurrs were moving much slower on the pathway to abandonment than her foster families had been. It was difficult to keep her guard up for so long. 

"Very good, dear - this looks perfect! Now, let's get a pan and we will be ready to pour in the batter and start it cooking." Toriel beamed at the girl in front of her and gave her shoulders a little squeeze. It was so easy for Chara to sigh and lean back slightly into the soft, warm arms behind her. It was just like being in a real famil- 

_NO!_

Chara pulled away and set the bowl on the counter. As she pulled out a square pan from the drawer under the stove, she mentally kicked herself for starting to enter a fantasy world again. _Not today, of all days!_ "Family" was another word that did not apply to Chara, just like "mom", "dad", "brother", or "home". Chara lived in houses with other families, until she was sent back to a group house. That was all. She could not - _would_ not - allow herself to form attachments. It wasn't worth the agony that followed when she was sent away. 

And she would _always_ be sent away. That's just the way it was. 

When she was very young, she had dared to hope that she might find a mom and dad of her own, maybe even siblings. It hadn't taken her long to abandon that hope. With some families, it was obvious right away to Chara that she wouldn't be there long. Others were slower to give up on her. Sometimes their smiles and kind words lasted for several weeks. It only prolonged the inevitable. Eventually they would discover that Chara "just wasn't the right fit for them." Certainly, her piercing crimson eyes had unnerved more than one family. Or it could have been way she put on a plastic, unnatural smile to hide her emotions. Or maybe it was her lack of tact. Her stiff, withdrawn, aloof attitude. The inability to befriend or play well with other children in the household. Her bursts of temper. 

Whatever the families who took her in were hoping for, Chara couldn't give it them. 

She could always tell when the end was coming. The smiles growing more strained. The kind words that stopped being quite so kind. Long periods of being left to herself. The worried looks they gave her when they thought she wasn't watching. Low, quiet conversations between the parents that halted suddenly when Chara came into the room. Open disdain from other children in the household. 

And often she saw it before the adults were willing to admit it to themselves. When that happened, Chara had to help them. Willful disobedience usually worked. If not, then tantrums and physical, sometimes violent outbursts would speed things along. Chara had plenty of ways to help the adults come to the obvious conclusion that she had to leave. No point in pretending it was going to it was going to end any other way. 

And then would come the inevitable call to the county social service office. Her bags would be packed up. There would be a few insincere tears from the adults, though never from the other kids. And then, back to the group house with its peeling grey paint and worn-out mattresses on rusty metal beds and broken toys and disinterested social workers. Back to a dismal, unhappy life, but a place where at least she wouldn't have to keep her emotional guard up. Where there would be no stabs of rejection from yet another family. You couldn't abandon a child who was already abandoned. 

_I missed the hugs, though._

The hugs had made everything worse with the Dreemurrs. Chara had learned long before how to stiffen up and endure hugs from adults without emotion, but the sheer _number_ of them that all three of the Dreemurrs - especially Asriel - showered on her had made it difficult. Even the day she had slipped while trying to carry a stack of bowls to the cabinet, causing them all to fall and break on the floor, had only resulted in more hugs. This had confused Chara greatly - Toriel had been right there. She had _seen_ how Chara had ruined everything like she always did. So why hadn't Toriel yelled at her like she was supposed to? Why hadn't she been sent away? Or thrown over a cliff or into the lava or whatever else monsters did to worthless children? Why didn't they _get it?_

So she began to try to help them. More yelling, more tantrums, more disobedience. But they stubbornly refused to follow the path that Chara knew they would inevitably take, that they _had_ to take. They just kept hugging her, and forgiving her, and telling her that they loved her, and utterly confusing her. 

But without being able to understand it, Chara slowly began to accept that broken dishes and demon eyes and stiffness and emotional handicaps weren't causing the Dreemurrs to hate her. And against her will, she began to relax when furry arms were wrapped around her. Against her better judgment, she began to feel the emotional threads of her heart reaching out, longing to be knit into the fabric of the warm family around her - something she fought hard against. Giving in would only make it hurt more when they eventually sent her away. 

Another unexpected emotion began to bubble up in her - _gratitude._ Why were they putting up with her? Why had they not left her to die when they found her, broken and bleeding at the bottom of a pit? Why hadn't they gotten rid of her as soon as they could? Why had they shared everything they had, not grudgingly but with joy? Why did the boy who shared the bedroom with her seem to get so excited when she was around? 

And as the months became a year, Chara found that she was at war with herself. She fought against the warm feelings that were intertwining her life with the Dreemurrs. And she looked and looked for some way to repay the monster family for all they had done - something more significant than silly macaroni art or clumsily-knitted items. Some way to say "thank you" in a way that showed she really meant it. 

Then one night, after a visit to Waterfall, the perfect solution to both her problems unexpectedly presented itself. 


	4. The Way Forward

"Ah, it is such a beautiful day!" the king remarked as the two of them crunched through the snow. Chara wasn't so certain. Sure, the snow was fun to play in for an hour or so, but the western edge of the kingdom was by far the coldest region of the underground. The Dreemurrs had found some heavy winter clothing for her, which was thoughtful considering that they only needed lighter coats and sweaters for themselves in addition to their fur. But the bitter cold still seeped in, no matter how tight she pulled the thick coat and scarf around her. 

Normally she could have made it to Snowdin within 30 minutes, but the wind, the frigid air, and the snow drifts that were especially deep today were making the trip much slower. Walking in the spaces where Asgore's large feet pressed down the snow helped, but her legs were getting tired, and there was still a long way to go. Once or twice Chara looked up at the king and almost asked if she could... but _no_ , she wasn't a child. She could manage this. 

"I don't think my business at the newspaper office will take very long, and I believe the librarian only has questions about the funding for next year. And I want to check in with Ice Wolf to make sure he's still happy with his job. But after that, if you'd like we could get a bite to eat at the restaurant there." 

"That would be nice, Mr. Dreemurr." 

"Good! And also-", the king said in an exaggerated whisper, "don't tell Toriel, but if you'd like to stop at the shop there in town and pick up a little toy or something for yourself, we might be able to do that too." 

Chara got a funny feeling in her chest. "...Thanks" was all she could think to say. 

The two of them walked on. After a while, Chara asked "Mr. Dreemurr, will we be going to Waterfall today?" 

The king turned back towards her. "No, little one, I'm sorry we won't be going that far. By the time we finish in Snowdin and get a bite to eat, it will be time for us to start getting back home. Perhaps another time. Waterfall is a rather desolate area, but quite nice to visit." 

Chara was only slightly disappointed. Getting to Waterfall would have meant another long hike to and from the small town of Snowdin. But still... she would have liked to see the plaques one last time. Especially the one that had made everything so clear to her. The one that had shown her how she could save everyone.  


  


* * *

  


Chara remembered the first time she had read weathered plaques dotting the rocky walls of Waterfall. She had an interest in history, but the ancient retelling of the Great War was more like reading a fantasy story. She had asked Asgore why she had never heard about any of it, and he explained that it had been a very, very long time ago, far back to a point where history and legends became impossible to separate. Not of all the stories made sense to him either, he confessed. Still, he was happy to let her explore the caves and pathways and learn as much as she cared to from the remaining plaques that had not succumbed to centuries of weathering and erosion. 

Chara mostly considered the stories with idle curiosity - something interesting that happened in the past and helped explain why the monsters were stuck deep underground, but nothing particularly relevant to daily life. Until one night, as she was lying in bed listening to the soft snores from the boy in the bed next to hers and thinking over the ancient stories, a sudden realization hit her like a thunderbolt. And with it, an idea began to form in her mind that excited her so much she could barely sleep. The next day after breakfast, she made the hike to Snowdin library on her own to find every book she could on the subject. By the time dinner came around, she could hardly wait to tell the family. As the others dug into the casserole Toriel had made, Chara turned to Asgore. 

"Mr. Dreemurr, I just realized something about the barrier today. I was thinking about the things I'd read on those plaques in Waterfall, and I looked up some information at the library about how the barrier could be broken. I think I've figured it out!" 

"Really, Chara? That is fascinating!" exclaimed the king as he put another bite onto his fork. "What is it?" 

"Well, I know that none of us can go through the barrier ourselves, but if a human and monster merged their souls together, that would make them strong enough to go through, right?" 

In her excitement, Chara was so focused on the king that she didn't register the sudden silence from the other two occupants at the table. The king's expression didn't change, but his fork froze in midair. "Um... well, yes Chara, I- I believe the legends from the time the Great War do say that that would be possible." 

"So, there's the answer! All you need to do is use my soul, and then you could go through the barrier! And there are plenty of humans not far from this mountain, so finding enough souls to break the barrier would be easy!" 

The sudden clatter of silverware hitting the floor caused Chara to turn her head. Asriel had dropped his knife and was staring at her in wide-eyed horror. Toriel's paws had flown to her mouth. Chara stared at them in confusion, then turned back to the king whose fork was still frozen above his plate, a look of disbelief on his face. 

"Chara, no!" squealed the boy. 

The sound caused Asgore to snap out his momentary shock. He took a deep breath and laid his fork down. When he spoke, he appeared to be trying very hard to keep his voice calm. 

"Chara, child, that is something- that is something you must not- you cannot-" He stopped for a moment, then began again "I am afraid, little one, that you have not fully grasped the meaning of the plaques. It is true that a monster with a human soul would be incredibly powerful. But for such a thing to happen, a monster would have to... take your soul from you." 

"You would DIE, Chara!" Asriel practically yelled. 

Chara turned to look at each of the three faces that were staring at her. _I know that,_ she almost said. But for some reason, the Dreemurrs didn't appear to be excited. They seemed to be... scared, almost. Something wasn't right. This wasn't going at all the way she had intended. 

"...Oh," was all she could think to say. 

"My child," Toriel spoke up, "please, do not speak of such things! Asgore and I should have anticipated this." She glanced over at the king. "We never meant you to have any fear about what monsters might do to you! Do not worry, little one; no monster will ever try to take your soul. You are safe here with us." 

Chara's confusion only mounted. There was some misunderstanding here that she could not grasp. "Oh, um... well, thank you Mrs. Dreemurr." With a red face, she turned to her plate again. Eventually the others resumed their meals again, but not before Asriel reached over to put a paw on her arm. "Yeah, don't be afraid, Chara. Mom and dad and I will protect you! Everything's going to be fine." 

Chara mumbled a thanks, then ate in silence as the chatter around the table picked up again. She kept her head down, avoiding the worried look that hadn't left Toriel's eyes. This had been a mistake. They hadn't understood. For some reason, the adults in her life had once again failed to realize what was obvious - Chara wasn't meant to be there. Once again, she would have to figure it out on her own, and do what the adults couldn't.  


  


* * *

  


Chara was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the rock jutting out of the snow in front of her until she tripped over it and fell face-first into the snow with a muffled cry _._

"Oh, child! Are you alright!" 

The king was beside her in a moment, kneeling down. "Are you injured anywhere?" Chara winced as she struggled back into a sitting position. Her knee was throbbing where it had cracked against the rock, and she hissed with pain as she gently touched it. Asgore's hands immediately began to glow green, and he softly pressed them over the spot. Warmth flooded through her clothes to her skin, and within a few seconds the sharpness of the pain began to dull. In less than a minute, her knee felt completely normal again. Asgore helped her back to her feet. 

"How is that, child? Does it feel better?" 

She took a couple of steps. "Yes, it feels fine now. Thank you very much, Mr. Dreemurr." 

"You're welcome, Chara, but this is my fault. I had forgotten how long a walk this would be for such a young one, and you are surely tired. Why not come sit up here on my shoulders like you used to? You have not grown so big that I cannot still carry you." 

_I'm not a child!_ she thought. She had made the trip to town plenty of times on her own - just usually not in the bitter cold. But... the invitation was tempting. It's what she had been thinking about earlier. And now that he was offering... 

"No, I-I'm sure I can keep going, Mr. Dreemurr. I just wasn't paying attention." 

"I am sure you can, dear one, but it would be no trouble to carry you. And it has been so long since I have given you a ride. Would you not enjoy it?" 

_No. Well... yes. And it is my last chance, after all..._

A sudden gust of wind drove the cold into her bones a bit more, making the decision for her. 

"Well, OK - thank you." 

Chara held out her arms, and Asgore gently picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. Chara put her arms around his neck and began to bump along as the king resumed walking, at a faster pace now that he could move at full stride without waiting for a child half his size to keep up with him. 

"Ah, it has been a while since we did this, hasn't it Chara?" the king said. "Oh!" The king suddenly came to a halt. "I just remembered!" 

"Remembered what?" 

The king put his paws on his hips. Neither his smile nor the twinkle in his eye were visible to the girl. "Chara, I have just realized I do not know how to get to Snowdin." 

Chara blinked. "W-what? But we just keep going this way, Mr. Dreemurr. Eventually we'll get to the bridge, and it's not far from there." 

"And yet I am just not certain which direction I should go next. Can you help me?" 

Oh. _Oh._ Chara rolled her eyes. She had forgotten about this part. "Mr. Dreemurr, I think we just keep going and we'll get there." 

"Oh? Should I go this way?" The king turned sharply to the left and began walking slowly." 

"No! No, you have to go-" _Ugh. Fine._ Chara reached up and pulled forcefully on Asgore's right horn. At once the king turned to the right. 

"Ah, that is more like it! Is this correct now?" 

"No, back this way some more." Chara pulled on the left horn. Asgore dutifully curved slightly to the left. When he was facing the proper direction, Chara pulled both horns to straighten out his head. 

"Wonderful! I'm glad you know which way we should go, my child! I am so forgetful sometimes. But I wonder if it would be possible for us to go any faster?" 

_Oh come on!_

"Mr, Dreemurr-" 

"Oh, this is such a slow pace! It will take forever for us to get to Snowdin at this rate. If only we could move faster!" 

Chara sighed, and with resignation pushed gently on both horns. Immediately Asgore broke out into a trot. Chara began to bounce more forcefully on the king's shoulders. Against her will, a small smile began to break out on her face. Suddenly she pushed down hard on the horns. 

"Aha! Here we go!" cried the king, and suddenly the two of them were flying through the snow. Chara gave a shriek and began steering the king for all she was worth. They galloped along past rocks and trees, and before long the king's laughter was joined by the squeals and giggles of the girl riding on his shoulders. 


	5. The Strong and the Weak

One day, about six weeks after her arrival, Chara was walking through the foyer. She was in a foul mood. Her lessons had been particularly difficult that morning, and Toriel's encouragement had only reminded her how stupid she was. It didn't help that Asriel had been able to finish his schoolwork an hour earlier and was now playing with his friends outside. As she fumed on her way back to her room, the front door suddenly burst open. Asriel, looking behind and waving goodbye to his friends, accidentally plowed into her and sent them both sprawling. Chara's schoolwork flew everywhere. The book she was holding cracked her over the eye. 

"Oh!" Asriel started to get to his feet. "I'm sor-" was all he managed to say before Chara swung the heavy textbook at him savagely. 

"Watch where you're GOING, idiot!" she spat out. 

The book hit Asriel on the arm and he stumbled backwards into the bannister of the stairway. He slid down onto the ground and began bawling. 

_Oh great_ , thought Chara, _now I'm gonna get it_. "Come on, Asriel, stop it!" she said. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. Come on, be quiet! It's not that bad!" 

But the boy didn't stop. If anything, he began crying even harder, one paw clawing his short-sleeved shirt where his arm had been hit. Something seemed to be wrong. The way the sleeve was hanging just below his shoulder didn't look right. The arm seemed to be misshapen. Like there was a large dent there. 

Suddenly a heavy plume of powder poured out from the sleeve opening. Chara didn't know why, but she was suddenly very, very scared. 

"Asriel?! What's going-" 

More powder began to flow down Asriel's arm. 

"Mrs. Dreemurr!" Chara screamed. Footsteps were already pounding from the direction of the kitchen. " _Mrs. Dreemurr!_ Something's wrong!" 

"Asriel!" Toriel swept past Chara and threw herself down in front of her son, whose cries were now giving way to panicked screaming. She clamped her huge paws around his upper arm and a green glow began to seep through her claws. Chara backed into the corner, wide-eyed, hugging herself, on the verge of panic herself. 

_What is happening? What is happening what did I do what did I do oh no please no what did I do?_

She couldn't stand the wailing any longer. Chara turned and ran for her room, slamming the door behind her, throwing herself onto the bed, and curling up into a quivering, terrified ball. 

_This is it. This is it. I'm done. This is it. They're going to send me away. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, Asriel! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! What did I do? It's too late. They're going to send me away they're going to send me away they're going…"_

After several minutes, the sobs from down the hallway eventually died down, though Chara wasn't sure whether they had stopped or had just gotten very quiet. Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Chara squeezed her eyes shut and didn't move. She heard the door open. The heavy footsteps and rustling of a robe told her Toriel had entered the room. 

Chara waited for the snarl. For a paw to cuff her on the head. For claws to tear her out of the bed. Perhaps for her whole body to ignite in flames. But none of that happened. Instead, she heard a heavy sigh and felt the bed creak as someone large sat on the bed next to her. Then a velveted paw gently came to rest on her head. 

"Chara? Child, are you all right?" 

Chara said nothing but pulled herself tighter into a ball. The soft paw began to stroke her head. 

"My child, Asriel told me what happened out there. He knows that what you did was an accident." 

_It wasn't an accident! I hit him and something happened to his arm and he was crying and screaming and it wouldn't stop it wouldn't stop, what did I do, what did I do to him? Why aren't you punishing me? I'm supposed to be punished!_

"He will be fine, Chara. Everything will be fine. His arm is feeling much better now. It may hurt a little for a day or two, but he will be OK." 

Toriel must have sensed that she had relaxed ever so slightly. Chara heard her slide closer, then felt warm arms wrap themselves around her. 

"But how are you, my child? This must have been a shock to you as well. Are you alright?" 

Still trembling, Chara uncurled herself enough to look up. There was no trace of anger in Toriel's face, only concern. 

"I didn't mean to," she said barely above a whisper. 

"Oh, I know, chi-" 

"I didn't mean to hurt him. I don't know what happened. I hit him with my book but I don't know what happened to his arm. I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I didn't… I didn't know… I'm sorry… I'm sorry! I'm sor-" 

Toriel swept Chara up into her arms, cutting off the rest of her words. With her face buried in the robe, Chara sobbed until Toriel's sleeves were soaked, as the monster softly stroked her head and back. For several minutes Chara sat there, being rocked slowly back and forth by the arms that held her tight. When her sobs had subsided, Toriel looked down at her. 

"It will be alright, dear one! No one is angry at you. In fact, Asriel is waiting just outside. He wants to come in to make sure you are OK. I told him to wait until you are ready, and that you might need some time by yourself. But he is not angry with you. He knows you did not intentionally hurt him." 

"Mrs. Dreemur," Chara said quietly, "I-I still don't understand. I don't understand what happened. He looked like he was… was really hurt. What did I do?" 

"Oh, Chara, this is our fault," Toriel sighed. "This is something Asgore and I should have told you sooner. I know you may have been accustomed to… er, more physical outbursts before you came here. But you must be very, very careful, dear, to never strike Asriel or any other monster when you are angry." 

That was the day Chara learned about monster dust. That was the day she learned what a single human girl with anger in her heart could do to the monster kingdom. The revelation sickened her. This was not something to gloat about. This was a curse. Her temper could cause a monster to disintegrate in front of her, and that scared her badly. 

Asriel came in after that. There were more tears, but they were mostly tears of reconciliation. She couldn't stop saying " _I'm sorry!"_ no matter how many times he said " _it's OK"._ Asriel wanted to hug her. Chara desperately wanted to be hugged. 

But she pulled back. She had a vision of him reaching to her, only for his paws to crumble away the moment he touched her. She pictured him collapsing into a pile of dust if she so much brushed against him. 

Chara didn't touch him or Toriel or Asgore for the next three days. Only when Asgore had coaxed her, with many reassurances, into finally letting him give her a soft hug did her panic begin to subside. In time, a semblance of normality returned. Asriel was overjoyed when she began to let him hug her again. After several months they even got back to some of their previous good-natured roughhousing. 

But sometimes in her dreams, Chara found herself desperately pressing her hands against a green shirt sleeve, frantically trying to stop the dust that was pouring through her fingers. 

Chara never forgot the lesson. Humans were incredibly dangerous to monsters. 

Something else changed, too. A fierce protectiveness began to bubble up in her. The Dreemurr adults might be able to protect themselves, but the boy who was so affectionate and playful and innocent was so _fragile_. He needed someone to watch out for him and protect him. 

Outwardly, her attitude towards Asriel's propensity to tears continued to be one of exasperation. She hoped her casual, aloof presence at the scene of his crying would hide the fact that she was there almost immediately whenever she heard him. She would scoff and tell him not to be such a crybaby, all the while scanning him intently from head to foot, looking for any signs of injury, ready to run in an instant to fetch Toriel or Asgore if anything looked seriously wrong. 

She needed some way to help him be strong. She needed to make sure that no one like her would ever be able to hurt him again. 


	6. The Path to Freedom

Evening had finally come. If the two adults had noticed that Asriel and Chara were unusually quiet during dinner, they hadn't mentioned it. The meal hadn't been one of Chara's favorites, which had been a small disappointment, but she couldn't begrudge Asriel the pleasure he got out of the spider stew. At any rate, the brownies that had followed had made up for it. She only wished that Toriel had let her have more than two, but the queen had brightly promised she could have another one for lunch tomorrow. It had felt like a stab in the heart, but she had just nodded. 

Now, as she sat on her bed with the buttercups, the plastic bowl, and the scissors, she wondered if she might have time to sneak out and get another brownie before... well, before. She decided against it. This was already hard enough without any distractions. She was surprised, actually - her determination to see this through had carried her through many months of planning, preparation, research, and hard conversations with Asriel. She hadn't expected that her hand would be shaking slightly now, as she cut the hairy stems off the bright yellow flowers. Better not to think about brownies now. Stick with the plan. And speaking of which... 

"OK, you remember where to go?" 

Asriel, who had been sitting quietly on the bed on the other side of the room, jumped a little at the sudden question. After he had given her the hidden bag of buttercups he had collected over the last couple of days, the two of them had lapsed into an awkward silence. 

"After you get my soul, I mean. You know where to go, right?" 

The boy gave a tiny nod. "Yeah, all the way to the barrier." 

"Right. You can try going up through the hole I fell through first, but it’s a long way up there, and the cave entrance isn’t that big. So the barrier cavern near Hotland that Dad’s talked about is probably your best bet. And with your new powers, I'm almost sure you'll be be able to fly, or at least run super-fast or something, so it shouldn't take too long. Just start heading east, like you're going to Snowdin Town and keep going to Waterfall. Some of the caves there may be kind of tight, especially if you turn into something really huge. And there are some pretty big rocks way past the main waterfalls that are pretty steep, but maybe you can fly or do a super jump over them. You'll just have to see what kind of power you have." 

"And... I'll be really careful while I'm carrying you," he said softly. 

Chara rolled her eyes but said nothing. She had tried to convince Asriel that all he needed was her soul, and that he should just leave her body behind, or bury it, or otherwise dispose of it quickly if he absolutely _had_ to do something with it. She didn't want him wasting valuable time on that. But he had insisted, with tears, that he would carry her with him, body and soul, and she had dropped the subject. It didn't matter in the end, and if it made him more willing to do it, then so be it. 

"Anyway, once you get past Waterfall, I'm not completely sure where to go. I know there's a lot of lava, and the science lab is out there somewhere, but I think if you just keep flying over all of it and heading east, you should get to the barrier eventually." 

"Yeah..." he said quietly. 

Chara glanced at the boy. His head was bowed, and his paws restlessly sought each other. Normally it was his incessant chattering that irritated her, but this uncharacteristic silence was unnerving. She tried to catch his eye, but his head stayed pointed at the floor. Almost as if he was avoiding her. 

"Hey. Asriel." 

His eyes lifted. 

"Everything's going to be fine." Chara gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. The watery smile she got back from him was definitely not reassuring. But it would have to do. She returned to her task. 

_Snip_ . No sense in trying to force the stems down her throat. The toxins were mostly in the flower heads. She had no idea how many it would actually take, but since they - well, Asriel - needed to be out of the house long before the adults woke up, she wasn't taking any chances. The bag was about half-empty now, and the bowl was starting to get full. 

The unsettling silence from the other side of the room continued. Chara mentally kicked herself for letting Asriel stay with her while she worked on the flowers. No small part of getting him to agree to the plan had been her heavy emphasis on all the best parts of it. He would turn into a superhero. He would destroy the barrier. He would be the savior and the hero of monsterkind, and he would show humans how powerful monsters could be. The fact that she would die as part of the plan was unavoidable, but she had downplayed it as much as possible. She had at least had the foresight to insist that he stay in the house later, when she took the flowers outside alone. She assumed that it wouldn't take more than an hour for the poison to work, but to be safe she had told the boy he could only come out after two hours. She told him exactly where her body would be lying. 

She didn't want him to see her die. She wanted to be alone. It was more fitting that way. 

But she wished she had thought to send him away while she prepared the flowers as well. They were visual reminders of all the things she didn't want him to think about. At least she was almost done. 

"Oh, Chara! I went over to MK's today. Remember I told you that he and his sister got a new toy?" 

"Mmhmm," said Chara, without looking up. 

"It was really cool! It's a little motorized car that you can drive around with a remote control! It doesn't do too well outside, but inside on the bare floor it was awesome! We each took a turn driving it, and it was _so fun!_ You could make it spin around if you pushed the little sticks in just the right way, and we played this game where all of us would stand in the middle of the room, and the one with the controls would race the car to try to tag someone, and you weren't allowed to jump ov-" 

"Yeah, Asriel, that sounds pretty fun. Glad you got to play with them today." 

Asriel's slowly closed his mouth. For a few moments the two of them sat in silence again, interrupted only by the sound of the scissors and rustling bag. Asriel started fidgeting with his shirt. 

"Yeah, I wish you could have seen that car," he said after a minute. "It looked like the kind of thing you'd love. Oh, and Missy was playing with us too. She was sorry you couldn't come, and said she was hoping she'd see you soon." 

Chara's head snapped up. "And what did you tell her?" 

"Oh, I uh..." Asriel swallowed. "I just, uh, told her that you were sorry you couldn't be there and that... maybe she could see you another time. I-I didn't really know exactly what to say." 

Chara kept her eyes on the boy, who reddened and dropped her gaze. 

"Well at least you didn't tell her I'd be over there next week or anything silly like that. It's fine, I guess. Don't worry about it." She turned back to her work. The bowl was almost full - that was probably plenty. But maybe just a few more to be sure. 

"But yeah," said the boy after a few more moments, "I think she had really hoped you be there today, and she sounded like she was definitely looking forward to... seeing you... sometime." 

The scissors stopped. This time Chara raised her head slowly. Asriel's paws were kneading the bedspread underneath him, and he was rocking gently. He didn't raise his head to meet her glare. 

"Asriel... what are you trying to say?" 

Still clutching the quilt, the boy raised his head. He caught Chara's eyes briefly, then let his eyes drift as he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Finally, in a quiet voice, he said "I was just thinking..." There was a long pause. "-that...you know... maybe we should think about... putting this off for a while." 

_Oh no. No no no no no. Not this. Not now._

"Asriel," she fought to keep her voice calm but firm, "we've been over this already. We've been planning this for months. There's not going to be a better time than now. Everything is ready. _I'm_ ready for this. I've spent the previous two weeks making sure that the last thing my friends remember about me are happy memories. Your mom and your dad and I had a really nice day today, _exactly_ the way I wanted it. It's time now. It's time to let everyone go free, and you and I are going to do it." 

The boy kept rocking gently. 

"We're going to be heroes, remember?" Was that a small nod from him? "You and I are going to save everyone! We're _ready,_ Asriel, you and me! But I can't do this without you." Chara switched to the gentle tone that always worked after being firm. "I need you to do your part, or everything I do will be useless. Can you do that? Can you be a hero?" 

When she didn't get an answer right away, Chara pressed on. "Besides, you're not just going to be a hero. You're about to become a _superhero,_ Asriel! You're probably going to be more powerful than any monster ever, and I bet you'll be able to fly right up to the barrier and just smash right through it. And then when everyone goes up onto the surface, you'll be able to protect them all and make sure the humans leave everyone alone. Remember we talked about that? How cool it's going to be?" 

"But..." His head came back up. "But Chara, I'm not sure I want to turn into something else." 

"But you're going to be a super-monster, Asriel!" 

"B-but we don't know that for sure, do we? I mean, I know the books and the legends say that a monster with a human soul will be really powerful but... we don't really know what I'll turn into, do we? Didn't some of the plaques say that it might make a creature that's really strange?" 

_A horrible beast,_ she remembered. The drawing that had accompanied that plaque was crude and weathered, but the image of the beast on it was still deeply unnerving to look at. Frightening, even. She forced the image out of her mind. _Good thing Asriel never saw that_. 

"Asriel, look - you trust me, don't you?" 

The boy's head was back down, so it was hard to tell if he had nodded or not. 

"Asriel! Do you trust me?" 

"Of course I do, Chara!" As he raised his head, she could see that his eyes were beginning to glisten. "I would never doubt you!" 

"Good. So let's just stick with the plan. We're doing the right thing for everyone." She picked up the scissors again and pulled out another flower. For a moment or two there was silence. 

"It's just-" 

Chara closed her eyes. _Please..._

"It's just... I'm not just afraid of what's going to happen to me. Really, I'm more afraid of... of what's going to happen to you." 

The cracking tone of his voice told Chara exactly what she would see when she opened her eyes. Sure enough, tears were starting to roll down the boy's furry cheeks. 

"Asriel, don't worry about that part. I'm going to be with you! I'm going to be with you forever, from now on. Once you absorb-" 

"You don't **know** that, Chara!" 

The sudden outburst left Chara blinking in surprise. The boy reddened but hurried on. 

"I know you said that I'll be a superhero, but you don't really know that for sure. And I know you said that you'll be inside me, and that we'll be able to talk to each other and stuff, b-but you don't really know _that_ for sure either. And-" he was having a hard time getting the words out now. "And I really don't want you to leave me. I like having you here. Like you are now. Having a sister is fun. I like playing with you and doing cool stuff. What if we're wrong and you're gone forever after... after you-" 

As arguments and responses began to come to Chara's mind, she didn't notice the scissors shaking in her hand. Like a detached observer, a small part of her brain noted a word he had just said. Asriel had introduced her to other monsters as his "sister" before, and she had never bothered correcting him, so the word was nothing new. Other children in other families had sometimes called her that, at first. But never for very long. Never for more than a few weeks at most. That was the inevitable pattern. _So why did Asriel keep calling her that?_

"Asriel, look. I get it. You're scared. I'm scared too. But this is what heroes have to do - they have to do the right thing even when they're scared. They have to do what they know is best even when nobody else will do it. And you and I together can do what all the adults, even your parents, know ought to be done. They won't do it, so we'll do it for them." 

"But Chara, we're just kids. Shouldn't we at least talk to mom and-" 

"They won't do anything, Asriel - you know that. And besides, I'm not a child. I know what I'm doing." 

"But-but I'm only 10, and you're about the same-" 

**"I am not a child!"**

Asriel blanched and snapped his mouth shut. Chara's red eyes bored into him with a fierceness that made him shrink back. 

"I'm not a child! I haven't been a child for a long time - long before I ever came here. I had to grow up a long time ago. I had to learn to take care of myself, to figure out what needed to be done, and to make the adults do what they were supposed to do. And I _know_ what needs to happen now. It's time for me to leave, Asriel. I don't belong here. I have _never_ belonged here. The only difference is that this time, when I leave, I can actually _help_ your mom and dad." 

She picked up the bowl and held it out towards him. Asriel shrank back, still wide-eyed. 

"With this, I can give every monster what they want more than anything. Your mom and dad know that." She pounded on her chest. "They know that I've got the key to their freedom right here. But they just won't _take_ it. They should, but they _won't do it!_ They haven't figured out that I don't belong here. So, I have to help them. I have to give it to them. I'm going to give it to _you_ , Asriel, and you're going to be the hero of the underground." 

Asriel said nothing. Chara forced herself to calm back down. 

"We have to think like grown-ups now, Asriel. I know it's not fun, but if you can't do that, then at least trust me. Trust me that I'm thinking like a grown-up, and I'm making decisions like a grown-up. Because I stopped being a child a long time ago." 

Chara pulled the bowl to her lap and began running her fingers through it. The flowers irritated her skin, and she wiped them off on her blanket. Part of her wondered how they would taste. Would there be any buttery taste at all? Should she try to chew them, or just force them down? 

"But Chara... you _are_ a child." 

_Oh, for crying out loud._

"Asriel," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, "do I really have to explain _metaphors_ to you?" 

"N-no I understood what you meant. I was saying you're a child because-" 

"Because I'm still young, yes, I get it," Chara snapped. "I know we're about the same age. What I was _trying_ to say was that I-" 

"No, Chara, that's not what I mean either. Can-can you please just be quiet and listen to me for a minute?" 

Chara snapped her mouth shut in surprise. That was about as stinging a rebuke as she'd ever heard from Asriel. The boy's eyes were still glistening, but now he wasn't avoiding her glare. 

"I think when you first fell down here, you were a lot older." He must have noticed the confused look on Chara's face because he hurried on, trying to pick out the right words. "I mean, after I found you and mom healed you, you barely even spoke for at least a couple of days. You hardly ever smiled, either. And I don't think I ever heard you laugh for, like, two or three months. I started to wonder if you even knew how." 

_A memory bubbled up in her mind - the echoes of laughter in the Snowdin forest just a few hours ago. Not just Asgore's deep chuckles either. When else had she felt that way? A few days ago, throwing snowballs at Asriel? Listening to terrible jokes that Missy had learned from someone? Come to think of it, she had done more laughing in the last seven months than she had in the previous seven years._

"When I say you looked old, I mean, you looked like you had really had a rough time. I know you've never wanted to tell me a lot about what happened to you on the surface, but I could tell it wasn't good. We all could. You hardly ever looked happy, and you didn’t play with anybody. You just kind of stayed around the house all day by yourself. Whatever happened to you on the surface took everything away that made you a normal kid." 

Chara's fingers drifted back to bowl without her realizing it. The burning made her jerk her hand back and wipe it on her blanket again. Ugly memories of being driven away from families and sent back the dreary group house began to float into her mind. But Asriel wasn't finished. 

"But that's starting to change now. _You're_ starting to change, Chara! It's like you're getting young again and remembering how to be a kid. You've got friends now, and you've started-" He started fiddling with the blankets again. "...you know, smiling more. And laughing. You don't get angry nearly as much as you used to. You come out and play all the time now. And you do the kinds of things that kids do. I mean, doesn't stuff like that remote-control car sound cool to you?" 

_It did. Although what really would have been fun would have been if she and Missy had gone over to the shop to share a bisicle and talk. Missy knew all about the stuff going on in Hotland and had even visited the lab once or twice. Science was her favorite subject, just like Chara's. It would have been nice to see her one more time..._

"What's your point, Asriel?" The bluntness of the question was lost in the small voice. The boy leaned forward. 

"It's not that I don't trust you, Chara! It's just... I think maybe mom and dad understand the situation better than we think. Maybe they understand it better than we do." 

"Then why aren't they doing what they should be doing? Why does it take us having to come up with this plan to save everyone, when they should have just taken my soul themselves a long time ago?" 

"Because they don't want you to die." Asriel said simply. His eyes pleaded with her to believe it. 

Chara shook her head. "They want to leave the underground, don't they? You _know_ they do, Asriel! They want that more than anything!" 

"They want _you_ more than they want to get out, Chara! Can't you tell? Can't you tell that they love you? Do you really think that they'd be willing to see you die just so they could get out? Or that your friends want that? 

_Yes, I do,_ Chara tried to say, but her brain was short-circuited by another word Asriel had said that absolutely _did not apply_ to her. Love was something she could see in other families, but it wasn't for an interloper like her. Chara didn't have a family. Chara didn't have a mother... 

_...who taught her how to bake and knit and helped her with school lessons and gently scratched her back while she sat in her lap and read stories to her and Asriel at night and tucked her in with a kiss_

and she had no father... 

_...who played board games with her and gave her piggy-back rides and brought home chocolate bars for her and held her hand when she jumped from rock to rock in Waterfall_

and she didn't have a brother... 

_...who chattered on endlessly with her and who liked exploring the deeper caves under their home with her and tried to teach her magic and told her his hopes and dreams in the dark when they were supposed to be sleeping and not talking but mom and dad didn't seem to mind_

Chara didn't _have_ people who loved her. That's what normal children in normal families got. Instead all she had was- 

...was... 

_...what did she have?_

"Chara?" 

Her whole body had slumped without her realizing it. She raised her head. Asriel was leaning forward on his bed, looking anxiously at her. 

"Asriel..." _Why was everything so confused now?_ "Isn't this what we should be doing? Isn't this the grown-up thing to do?" _Why was she asking him instead of telling him?_

"I-I guess I don't really know". Asriel rubbed the back of his neck and dropped his head. "But, I know mom and dad are really smart. I-I just think that maybe..." 

He looked up again. His eyes were growing wet again. 

"Maybe you and I can just let mom and dad figure out what's best to do. I don't need to be a superhero. You don't have to say goodbye to everyone. Maybe we should just... stay kids for a little longer." 

He closed his mouth, and it seemed to Chara that tears began to splash onto his shirt before her vision suddenly became quite blurry. She didn't notice the dampness on her cheeks, and barely registered the sound of the bowl clattering to the floor, but it looked like an indistinct figure had jumped up and was rushing forward, arms stretched out to her. 


	7. Epilogue: What Might Have Been, What Yet May Be

_Years later..._  
  


Asgore stared at the pile of documents spread out on the long table and sighed wearily. He thought wistfully of his days as a prince, being so proud to be near his father, watching how the people admired him, longing for the day when he would get to be king. Somehow his daydreams had never included any visions of endless paperwork. Applications to open new shops in Snowdin. Erosion problems in Waterfall. The constant tension between those wanting to make more challenging puzzles in Hotland and those who just wanted to get to work on time. The proposal to install more elevators and walkways to make travel to and from the CORE not so reliant on vent-hopping. 

Wait - the CORE. The king suddenly perked up as he remembered a dispatch that had arrived from the CORE Science Lab just that day. He fished around through the stacks until he found the envelope marked "W.D.G". Pulling several sheets out, he began to scan through the report. 

_...and although the MagWatt rating of postmortem SOULs is still significantly higher than the limited SOUL power (SP) accessible in vivente corpore, nevertheless this breakthrough in channeling the volitional power of human will as measured in DT units (ref: 201X08.11 report by Dr. A. on DT waveform isolation and focusing) shows significant promise in amplifying attenuated SP in living hosts. Even with a limited sample size of DT levels (fig. 1a) based on initial test subjects (incidentally, my regards to B.DRM, C.DRM, and O.DRM), I feel confident that Barrier resonance may be overpowered with as few as eight (8) humans synchronizing their SP while connected to the DT channeling matrix (fig. 1b) and focusing their volitional..._

"BANG!" 

Asgore's studying was interrupted by a yell. A boy of about nine years old had run into the living room, wearing a cowboy hat that was slightly too large for him and pointing a gun at the king. A younger girl in a light blue dress and matching ribbon around her ponytail darted in after him, almost tripping on her hem as she tried to catch up. 

"Aaaaaugh!" gasped the king as he grabbed his chest and slumped over. "I've been shot! Now this paperwork... will never... get done". He coughed, then collapsed onto the desk, scattering several sheets of paper onto the floor. 

"No, Yosef! Don't shoot dad!" cried the girl. 

"He's just foolin' ya!" declared the boy confidently, pushing his hat back up with the revolver. "He just **looks** like dad! But he's really the evil Bad Dad Bandit, stealin' everyone's gold and makin' the real dad look like the thief!" 

"No! That's our real dad, and I'm going to save him. _Healing magic_ !" The girl waved her arms at the collapsed figure. "BEEYOOOOOM!" 

"Ah!" The king sat back up and smiled at the girl. "I feel much better now! Thank you, Charlotte." 

"No, that's Bad Dad! BANG BANG BANG BANG!" yelled the boy as he shook his gun at the king. Asgore groaned and fell onto the table again. 

"No, he's not! BEEYOOOOOM!" The king pulled himself back up with a relieved sigh. 

"I'm telling ya, he's the bad guy! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!" 

"You don't have that many bullets, Yosef! BEYOOOOOOM!" 

"They're magic bullets that reappear in the gun. BANG BANG BANG!" 

"BEYOOOOOOM!" 

The wood creaked as Asgore repeatedly slumped onto the table then snapped back up. He began to feel a little bit like a rag doll. 

"BANG!" Down he went again. 

"Children!" interrupted a voice from the hallway. "It is time for lunch." The queen stepped into the living room and glanced at the dead king, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. "But first, please clean up all of these papers on the floor." 

"It's Yosef's fault, mom!" protested Charlotte. "He shot dad-" 

"You mean the bandit!" her brother corrected. 

"-and that's what made all the mess!" she finished. 

"Well, if the two of you work together it will only take a minute." 

Grumbling a bit, Yosef holstered his gun and set to work with his sister picking up the papers. As they haphazardly dumped them back on the table next to the motionless figure, Toriel turned and called down the long hallway on the other side of the foyer. 

"Penelope!" 

The door to one of the new bedrooms at the end of the hall opened, and a tall girl poked her head out. Her soft purple gown closely matched Toriel's, except that it was made of heavier material and was accompanied by a sweater - something more comfortable in the cold climate for a person not covered in fur. 

"Yeah, mom?" 

"Would you please go out back and call the others in for lunch?" 

"Ok. Let me just grab my coat." 

Toriel turned back to the living room, now tidier than before. "Thank you, my dears. Now please go and make yourself a sandwich, or you may eat some of the leftovers in the refrigerator." 

"Ok," replied the boy. "Hey, where's Garrett and Bella?" 

"They are in Hotland today, remember? I believe they will be on TV tonight at 7:00". 

"Oh, right, it's Human Week on MTTV channel 3!" Charlotte exclaimed excitedly. "Garrett's going to be on _Cooking With a Glamorous Robot_ and Bella is going to be playing Mettaton's one true love in his new opera!" 

"Yuck, that sounds dumb!" The boy stuck out his tongue. "Dancing and mushy love stuff. Bleah!" 

"Well, _I_ think it will be nice!" the girl said, glaring at him with her hands on her hips. 

"Well, both of you come get lunch now," their mother said as she stepped into the kitchen. "Perhaps it will still be enjoyable even if it has 'mushy love stuff'." 

"Probably not!" said the boy as he rushed into the kitchen. 

The girl started to follow him but stopped as she came to the body of her father, still splayed over the paperwork on the table. Her tiny arms reached around his neck. "Beyoooom!" she whispered into his ear. 

The king sat back up and looked down fondly at his daughter. "Thank you, little one!" he said with a smile as he gently stroked her head with his massive paw. "I am all better now." 

  


* * *

  


Penelope stepped out through the large doors and shivered in the cold winter air. A gust of wind rustled through the trees, blowing clouds of fine snow from their branches. She pulled her coat and violet scarf around her more tightly. 

"Hey guys?", she called out. "Are you out here?" 

There was no answer. Pushing up the glasses on her nose, she took a few steps down the wide path that wound through the snowy forest. After about sixty feet she noticed two sets of tracks turning left and disappearing into the trees. 

"GUYS!", she yelled into the woods. "Where are you?" 

This time a girl's distant voice came back. 

"We're out here, Penny." 

Penelope followed the footprints which pointed in the same direction as the voice. After several minutes, she emerged from the woods to the edge of a bluff. Sitting on the edge, dangling their legs over the side of the cliff, were her brother and sister. They turned to look at her. 

"Hey, guys. Whatcha doing?" 

"Oh, nothing," said her brother. "Just sitting and enjoying the view." 

Penelope looked out at the enigmatic underground forest far below her, stretching off as far as she could see. "The trees look so pretty after a snowfall." 

"Yeah, they do. They kind of look like little Nice Creams on sticks" said the other girl. She brushed away a patch of snow beside her. "Wanna come sit down?" 

"Yeah, Penny, you're welcome to hang out with us if you want!" added the boy. 

"No thanks, I'm already freezing," she said with a shiver. "I just came out to tell you that Mom says it's time to come in for lunch." 

"Ok, thanks!" the boy said. "We'll be there in just a few minutes." 

"Hey, have you guys seen Oliver anywhere? Did he come out with you?" 

"No," replied the girl. "I think he was going bug hunting somewhere near Home. Maybe check by the Froggit pond. Oh, and that reminds me - did you still want to go over to Croaquette's place later?" 

"Yeah, that'll be fun!" She turned back the way she had come. "Ok, I'll see you guys inside." 

Penelope hurried back through the woods, back to home and warmth. The boy and girl turned back to the view in front of them. Neither of them made a move to stand up. 

"It's really pretty out here, isn't it?" the girl said after a while. 

"It's one of my favorite spots!" replied the boy. He pointed a furry paw at the expanse of trees far below them, stretching off into the darkness. "Just think, Chara - none of that forest has ever been explored by anyone! There could be anything down there. Rivers, valleys, caves, gold mines, fields of flowers..." 

"Probably not fields of flowers in the snow, Ree." 

"Yeah, OK, maybe not flowers. Oh! Unless they're snow flowers! It could be a new type of flower nobody's ever seen before." 

"Yeah... maybe." 

The two of them sat quietly for a few more moments. 

"I wish there was an easy way we could get down there," Asriel said as he leaned forward and carefully peered over the edge. 

"Do you think you could float me down there if you tried?" 

"What? No!" Asriel gestured at the trees below them. "It must be at least two hundred feet to the bottom." 

"Yeah, but your blue magic's been getting a lot better." Chara picked up a fist-sized rock next to her. "Here, catch!" she said, as she tossed it over the cliff. 

Asriel's paw shot out, as if to grab the rock already far below him. A bright blue glow enveloped the stone, and it came to a stop. Then, as the two of them leaned over to watch it, it began to descend towards the valley floor again much more slowly. 

"So far, so good." the girl said. 

Asriel furrowed his brow and tightened his jaw as the rock continued to lower. A hundred feet below them, the blue glow began to fade. His hand shook. "Urrrrgh - it's too far, I'm losing my grip-". A moment later the blue light disappeared completely, and the rock plummeted until it crashed into the branches of a tree. 

The girl chuckled. "Well, that's the farthest I've seen you hold on to something with magic, but yeah, I suppose we're not quite ready for me to ride the blue elevator down there. That last drop is still a doozy." 

Asriel leaned back, and the two of them surveyed the expanse again. "Now, what would be _really_ cool would be if I had some kind of flying magic!" He made a swooping gesture with his paw. "Then I could just carry you, and we could fly down there and go exploring anytime we wanted. Or maybe just zoom over the tops of the trees and see how far back the forest goes. That'd be cool! In fact," a mischievous smile began to play on his face, "maybe I could make you a pair of wings to wear, so you could at least _pretend_ you were as cool as me while we did it." 

He kept smiling with his eyes firmly fixed on the scenery in front of him, fully prepared for the stony glare he would refuse to acknowledge, followed by some kind of retribution. It was all totally worth it. 

When he didn't get a response after a moment, though, he turned his head slightly. To his surprise, Chara wasn't looking at him. In fact, she wasn't moving at all. Her head was bowed slightly, and she was staring off into the distance blankly. Asriel's smile disappeared. 

"Chara? Are you OK?" 

At the sound of her name, the girl blinked a couple of times and turned. "Huh? Oh, sorry Ree - yeah, I'm fine." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah, I-I'm sure." She chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I, uh... I guess it's been a long time since I thought about you... having the power to fly. And carrying me." 

Asriel stared at her for a moment, confused. Then his eyes opened wide, and his paws flew to his mouth. 

"Oh, Chara, I'm sorry! I know that's a bad memory - I didn't mean to bring it up." 

She laughed softly. "Hey, it's not your fault. It's my memory after all. And really... it's actually not what I'd call a _bad_ memory. More like a-" She paused while she tried to work it out. "Like a _grateful_ memory, somehow. Like the feeling you get when something almost happens but then doesn't and... you're really glad it didn't" 

Chara fell silent again. She turned back to the landscape in front of her, eyes distant once more. The boy said nothing but scooted over a little closer and leaned against her. For a moment they both sat quietly. 

"That was a weird day, huh?" The girl smiled ruefully. "I was ready, Ree. It had taken me months to get my courage up, but I was ready. I had everything prepared for that night. I had said my goodbyes to everyone as best I could. I was ready to give you my soul. I was determined." She chuckled softly. "And then, right at the last minute, you had to go and open your big mouth." 

The boy smiled without looking over. "Yeah, I'm always saying stupid things. What a mistake that turned out to be, huh?" 

That earned him a punch in the shoulder. His smile got even wider but he refused to meet the crimson eyes boring into him. The two of them lapsed back into silence. 

A few moments later, Asriel turned back to Chara. "Seriously, though, sis, I'm just glad you listened to me. I really didn't know what to say, or how to ask you not to do it, and everything I said was probably dumb and didn't make sense, but... I'm glad you listened." 

Chara's eyes were soft. She glanced at the boy, opened her mouth, then closed it and just gave a small nod. Then she sighed and braced herself to stand up. Asriel got up quickly and reached a paw down to help her up. The two of them brushed the snow off their clothes and began to walk slowly back through the woods towards the main path. 

"You know, Ree," Chara glanced at the boy, "if you had agreed to the plan, you could have been out of here a long time ago. You wouldn't be having to figure out how to climb down cliffs. You'd have the whole world to explore." 

Asriel smiled and stepped a little closer to put his arm around her shoulder. "This is way better, sis. I'd much rather be exploring down here than be up on the surface without you." 

"Are you sure? Don't you sometimes wish that you had let me-" 

"Nope. Never." 

The two of them continued walking, the silence broken only by the sound of the snow crunching under their feet. 

"You know, you were wrong what you said earlier, Ree." 

"Huh?" 

"About the stuff you said on that night. It wasn't dumb at all. You turned out to be exactly right." 

Asriel kept his eyes on Chara but said nothing as she gathered her thoughts. 

"It didn't make sense to me that your mom and dad would want to keep me around. I knew that humans were terrible, including me. Combine that with the fact that my soul would let them go free. I was sure that's what they really wanted." 

She spread her hands out. 

"And now look at us now. Mom and Dad ended up with so many human kids they had to expand the house. All the monsters love them, and it turns out not all humans are terrible. Not the children at least." 

"And me-", Chara continued softly. "Who'd have thought? 'Chara Nobody', a girl with no family, no-one who loved her, and ready to die. And now I’m Chara Dreemurr, with a mom and a dad. And I get to be the big sister of seven kids. 

"Um, Chara? I know you're not sure when your birthday is, but Dad thinks I might be slightly older than you." corrected the boy. 

She glared at him. "Fine, I'm a big sister to six human kids and about the same age as one monster dorkbrother." 

"That's _Prince_ dorkbrother to you." Asriel grinned. 

"Don't give me that! I'm adopted, so that means I'm royalty too. So there!" 

"As you wish, my dear Princess Chara." His grin grew bigger. 

"UGH! NO! Forget I said that! Do **not** call me Princess Chara!" his sister said, landing another punch on his shoulder to emphasize the point. That got a soft chuckle out of him. Chara fought hard to keep the scowl on her face but lost the battle as the two of them stepped out of the woods and back onto the main path. She stopped walking. "Look... Ree?" 

The furry boy turned to look at her. "What I mean is... I guess I'm just trying to say... thanks, I guess." 

Asriel's just kept his soft green eyes on her, and Chara hurried on in embarrassment. "Thanks for stopping me, I mean. I don't know what would have happened if we had gone through with the plan - and if you ask me, it probably would have been _really cool_ \- but... but I'm glad you stopped me. I'm-" She stopped for a moment and lowered her head. "...I'm just really glad we still got to be kids." 

Asriel's eyes began to get damp. "Aww, Chara, that's so sweet! Thanks for... well, listening to me, I guess. I'm really, really glad you didn't go through with it." 

Chara nodded absently, trying to figure out how to say the last thing she really wanted to say. "Yeah, me too. And Ree, I... I... uh." She coughed. "I... think you're a pretty cool brother." 

Asriel's eyes were still bright, but a twinkle began to appear in them. "Thanks, Chara! I love you too!" 

"That is NOT what I said!" 

"Sure you did! You just told your big brother how much you love him! C'mon, give me a hug!" He stepped forward with his arms wide open. 

Quick as a flash, Chara bent down to the ground. "How about THIS instead?" she said as she crammed a double handful of snow into his face. With a bleat of surprise Asriel toppled backwards onto the ground. Chara took a few steps back into the woods towards a snow drift, then unexpectedly threw herself down into it. By the time Asriel had pulled himself to his feet, his paws now cradling an ominously large snowball, Chara was lying on her back and swinging her arms and legs back and forth in the snow. 

"The angel! I'm protected by the Underground angel! You're not allowed to attack!" she said gleefully. She sat up in the silhouette of the snow angel she had created and smirked. "No snowballs! That's the rule." 

Asriel stared daggers at her, but she stuck her fingers in her ears and blew a raspberry at him. So amused was she by her own mockery and taunting that she didn't notice her brother's hand at his side slowly turn towards her. Not until she began to feel cold water rapidly seeping into her clothes. 

“What in the world?!” she gasped. A ring of tiny translucent flames was flickering on the ground around her, melting the snow and causing it to run into the indentation where she sat. 

"Hey, what do you know, looks like we might be getting a bit of a heat wave!" Asriel chuckled. He pointed at the tree branches above Chara. "Looks pretty warm up there too!" 

Stupidly, Chara followed the direction of his paw. A huge mound of suddenly slushy snow toppled from the branches and landed in her lap. “Aaaaah!” she yelled as began frantically bushing the wet snow off her pants. 

"And hey, looks like the angel has flown off as well!" Chara looked down at the melted silhouette, then snapped her head up in horror, just in time to have the double-size snowball plow directly into her face. 

With difficulty she managed to clear enough of the snow off her face so that she could open her eyes. "A-A-Asriel, you j-j-erk!" she said through chattering teeth. "That w-w-wasn't f-f-air! Get over h-h-ere and h-h-help me up!" 

As the boy prince moved towards her, the doors leading back inside the house suddenly burst open. The two of them looked up to see Penelope running outside. 

"Guys! Guys!" She stopped as she spotted the two of them and began motioning wildly back towards the house. "Come quick! Another human has fallen down the hole! Oliver just came from the cave to get mom. He says it's another kid! Come on!" 

Penelope turned and ran back through the doors. After a moment of shock, Chara turned and looked up. Her eyes were shining. "Help me up, Ree!" 

Asriel immediately grabbed both of Chara's hands and pulled her to her feet. "Here, just a second!" he said, and he threw his arms around the girl. Warmth began to flow into her, and within a few moments her clothes, if not fully dry, were at least not freezing wet anymore. "Is that better now?" the boy asked her. 

"Yeah, that's a lot better. Thanks, Ree." And before he could disengage, Chara threw her own arms around him and gave him a hug that conveyed something far deeper than magic. "You really are awesome, bro." 

She let him go and resisted the childish impulse to playfully boop his smiling muzzle. For about half a second. Then she did it anyway. 

"Come on, race ya!" she yelled. And with a crunch of snow, the girl and her brother took off running back home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Story inspired by [this comic](https://doreenchartreuse.tumblr.com/post/133046665241).
> 
> Please let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!
> 
> And if you enjoyed this theme of Chara and Asriel not dying as a result of the buttercup plan, you might enjoy _[A Minor Scheduling Erorr](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872568)_ , a four-part series with a similar theme by [YetAnotherPersona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YetAnotherPersona/pseuds/YetAnotherPersona).


End file.
